According to a new paper published in the journal Cancer Research women taking combined oral contraceptive pills (COCP) have a 50 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer. Frightening stuff – or is it?
Oral contraceptive pills have many benefits; they provide excellent contraception, decrease pain and bleeding during periods, they can help towards restoration of normalisation of hormones in women with polycystic ovary syndrome and they significantly decrease the risk of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, colon cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. They do have risks, however, among them an increase in the risk of breast cancer.
This risk needs to be put into perspective in order to fully assess whether the benefits of the pill outweigh the risks. When interpreting quoted risks for a particular condition, it’s essential to understand two concepts: absolute risk and relative risk.
I do apologise if your eyes are beginning to glaze over, but bear with me.
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